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Diagnostic on Yearning Prayer for our Bridegroom
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Y – Yearning – Long for the Now-But-Not-Yet Kingdom to Come More Fully
▪ 19. Strategy 18 – Prayer Yearning – Pressing forward with perseverance and anticipation longing for the promised return of Our Beloved Savior and Lord.
Introduction – Prayer Yearning for Our Bridegroom
“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirst for God for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” Psalms 42:1-2 David expresses the longing deep in our souls for a deep and intimate connection with God. This yearning for the One our hearts long for with greater intensity and zeal is captured in the imagery of a bridegroom and bride. Paul speaks of the profound mystery of Christ and the church with this imagery. The depth of this love and the unyielding nature of pursuit of one another is the way of the cross for Jesus and the “offering your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God” of the church. This depth of sacrificial love has implications now in our personal lives, families, cities, and nations. The yearning has implications in the yet to come Kingdom implications.
In Ephesians 1:9-10, Paul speaks of “the mystery of God’s will…with a view to an administration suitable to the fulness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth.”
Francis Frangipane writes of this passage:
“Paul put a headline over this entire period of transformation: he called it “the fulness of times.” Paul believed there would be an unparalleled intensification of divine activity during the last hours of the age. Again, the word here for “times” is Kairos. These will not only be significant days, but they are destined to contain “the fulness” of significance and divine accomplishment.
“You see, as a writer of the Scriptures, the Lord not only showed Paul the details concerning the falling away, the difficult times, and the rapture, God granted Paul a “view” into the “administration” of glory at the end of the age. The word translated administration is elsewhere in the New Testament rendered “stewardship.” It refers to God taking the initiative to bring His creation back into order. Paul tells us that this marvelous work of God will be sovereign, yet inclusive of His servants. He says that the church at the end of the age is to be given a stewardship, a mandate from heaven. At the bidding of the Sovereign King, we are called to participate with God in the process of divine consummation.
“Paul perceived that this end time partnership between Christ and the overcoming church would release the most spectacular execution of God’s power. It would not just be divine intervention, but divine assimilation: “the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth.”
As you step into the DBS study, let there be a deepening of the longing and yearning for Christ and the consummation of all things in Jesus the Messiah our Bridegroom King. For the DBS Study on this topic: Matthew 5:4; 5:6; Ephesians 5:21-33; John 3:27-30; Song of Solomon 1-8; Hosea 2:14-20; Psalms 45; Revelation 21:1-22:5; 2 Peter 3:11-13; Matthew 24:14; Luke 12:35-40
Jesus teaching – Matthew 5:4 and 5:6
- Pray as a group before beginning that God would speak to us and open our hearts to hear
Him.
- Read the entire passage aloud at least 2 times or listen to an audio version twice through. If
your group uses storying, present the scripture in this way. Then, have the group practice re- telling the story together.
- Discussion questions:
o What do you like about the story? What is difficult or what don’t you like? o What do you learn about people from this story? What do you learn about God? o What is the blessing or reward for those who mourn? o What is the blessing or reward for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness?
- Take a few minutes to quietly listen to God. What is He instructing you to do from what you’re
hearing? Share with each other what you’re sensing. Are some of His instructions quite different that you might have imagined? How?
- Who is God asking you to share this story with? When will you do it? Share with the group.
- What key principles about prayer can you draw from this passage?
John the Baptist proclamation – John 3:27-30
- Pray as a group before beginning that God would speak to us and open our hearts to hear
Him.
- Read the entire passage aloud at least 2 times or listen to an audio version twice through. If
your group uses storying, present the scripture in this way. Then, have the group practice re- telling the story together.
- Discussion questions:
o What do you like about the story? What is difficult or what don’t you like? o What do you learn about people from this story? What do you learn about God? o Who is the bridegroom? o What is the friend’s response to the bridegroom?
- Take a few minutes to quietly listen to God. What is He instructing you to do from what you’re
hearing? Share with each other what you’re sensing. Are some of His instructions quite different that you might have imagined? How?
- Who is God asking you to share this story with? When will you do it? Share with the group.
- What key principles about prayer can you draw from this passage?
Christ and the Church – Ephesians 5:21-33
- Pray as a group before beginning that God would speak to us and open our hearts to hear
Him.
- Read the entire passage aloud at least 2 times or listen to an audio version twice through. If
your group uses storying, present the scripture in this way. Then, have the group practice re- telling the story together.
- Discussion questions:
o What do you like about the story? What is difficult or what don’t you like? o What do you learn about people from this story? What do you learn about God? o When is the Church to submit to Christ? What does that mean? o How did Christ love the Church? o What does this produce in the Church? o What is the profound mystery of Christ and the Church?
- Take a few minutes to quietly listen to God. What is He instructing you to do from what you’re
hearing? Share with each other what you’re sensing. Are some of His instructions quite different that you might have imagined? How?
- Who is God asking you to share this story with? When will you do it? Share with the group.
- What key principles about prayer can you draw from this passage?
A New Heaven and a New Earth – Revelation 21:1-22:5
- Pray as a group before beginning that God would speak to us and open our hearts to hear
Him.
- Read the entire passage aloud at least 2 times or listen to an audio version twice through. If
your group uses storying, present the scripture in this way. Then, have the group practice re- telling the story together.
- Discussion questions:
o What do you like about the story? What is difficult or what don’t you like? o What do you learn about people from this story? What do you learn about God?
- Take a few minutes to quietly listen to God. What is He instructing you to do from what you’re
hearing? Share with each other what you’re sensing. Are some of His instructions quite different that you might have imagined? How?
- Who is God asking you to share this story with? When will you do it? Share with the group.
- What key principles about prayer can you draw from this passage?
Hastening that Day – 2 Peter 3:11-13; Matthew 24:14; Luke 12:35-40
- Pray as a group before beginning that God would speak to us and open our hearts to hear
Him.
- Read the entire passage aloud at least 2 times or listen to an audio version twice through. If
your group uses storying, present the scripture in this way. Then, have the group practice re- telling the story together.
- Discussion questions:
o What do you like about the story? What is difficult or what don’t you like? o What do you learn about people from this story? What do you learn about God? o What do these scriptures tell us we can do to ‘hasten’ Christ’s return?
- Take a few minutes to quietly listen to God. What is He instructing you to do from what you’re
hearing? Share with each other what you’re sensing. Are some of His instructions quite different that you might have imagined? How?
- Who is God asking you to share this story with? When will you do it? Share with the group.
- What key principles about prayer can you draw from this passage?
Diagnostic Questions for You and Your Team – Prayer Yearning – Pressing forward with perseverance and anticipation longing for the promised return of Our Beloved Savior and Lord.
a. How are you growing to know Him more and more each day? Are you sharing with your team and others what you are discovering through your times of intimacy with Him? b. Are you keeping your first love fully upon His Presence, and not becoming absorbed with the work or other distractions while ‘hastening’ the day of His return? c. Are you as a team practicing corporate communion with Him frequently continually aiming for richer times together in His Presence?
Further Resources on Prayer Yearning:
Articles, books, PowerPoint
Passion for Jesus: Cultivating Extravagant Love for God, Mike Bickle – Charisma House – 1993, 2007
The Song of the Bride, Jeanne Guyon – The SeedSowers – Copyright MCMLXXX, original in 1700s.
Song of Songs, The Passion Translation, BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC, 2017.
Desperate for His Presence: God’s Design to Transform Your Live and Your City, Rhonda Hughey, Bethany House Publishers, 2004.
The Days of His Presence: Attaining the Fullness of Christ in the Fullness of Time, Francis Frangipane, Arrow Publications, 1996.
The Quickening, film by The Sentinel Group. To order, see The Sentinel Groups Web site: http://www.sentinelgroup.org/videos.asp.
Let the Seas Resound, film by The Sentinel Group. http://www.sentinelgroup.org/videos.asp.